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{{Infobox Military Person
|name= Miles Standish
|image=[[Image:MylesStandish.gif]]
|caption= Myles Standish from 1625-1634?
|nickname= Captain Shrimp
|rank= [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]]
|branch= [[Image:Flag of the British Army.svg|23px]] [[British Army]]
|serviceyears= British Army 1601-1618, Plymouth Colony 1620-1656
(contracted; show full)inson, with his Pilgrim flock, settled at Leyden. There he joined the Pilgrims, and came with them to America, in the Mayflower. When that vessel anchored in Cape Cod Bay, and it was thought expedient to explore the bleak shore to find a good landing-place, Standish was among the first to volunteer for the service. He was one of those who passed the first Christian Sabbath, after their arrival, in deep snow upon a barren island in Plymouth harbor; and he was the second man who stepped upon Plymouth Rock.{{
cnFact|date=June 2009}}

Miles Standish was very serviceable to the English when the Indians showed signs of hostility and they relied much upon his military skill and personal bravery. Wherever the duties of his profession called him, there he was always found. Two years after the establishment of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, he was called to protect a new colony at Wissagusset (later known as Weymouth), who had exasperated the Indians by begging and stealing. They had been sent over by a wealthy London merchant, and most of them were quite unfit for the business of founding a state.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

The Indians resolved to destroy them, but through the agency of Massasoit, a firm friend of the English, the conspiracy was revealed to the Plymouth people in time for Captain Standish to march there with a small company and avert the attack. When he arrived, his anger was fiercely kindled by the insolence of Pecksuot, the chief, and his followers. Pecksuot sharpened his knife in the presence of Standish and said, “Though you are a great captain, you are but a little man; and though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage.”(Our Countrymen, p.14).

Standish had the wisdom to check his resentment, but the next day, when the chief and a great number of his followers were in a room with the white people, the captain gave a signal, and five of the savages were killed. Standish snatched Pecksuot’s knife from him and with it slew its owner. When Mr. Robinson (the original Pastor of the Pilgrims, and who remained in Holland) heard of this event, he wrote to the Church of Plymouth to refrain from following Captain Standish because of his bad temper.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

After this, Captain Standish settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about 1631, and a place near where he resided is still called Captain’s Hill. During almost the whole time of his residence in the colony, he was an assistant magistrate. He died at his house in Duxbury in the year 1656.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

===Ancestral Summary===

A lot of research has been done on the ancestry of Myles Standish, yet nothing conclusive on his parents have been found.  G.V.C. Young has suggested Myles Standish's great-grandfather was Huan Standish of the Isle of Man.  However, recent research has tended to undermine this conclusion, and new discoveries are currently being made which could very well disprove the Isle of Man origins altogether.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

Thomas Morton of Merrymount, in his 1637 book New England's Canaan, mentions that "Captain Shrimp" was bred a soldier in the Low Countries, and Nathaniel Morton wrote in 1669 that Standish was from Lancashire.  The will of Myles Standish mentions numerous lands both in Lancashire and on the Isle of Man.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

The maiden names of Myles Standish's wives Rose and Barbara are not known.  Rose died on 29 January 1620/1 at Plymouth, and wife Barbara arrived on the ship Anne in July 1623.  By the time of the 1623 Division of Land, Myles and Barbara were already married.  This probably suggests a marriage arranged by Standish, to a Barbara he either knew from home or from his stay in Leyden.  There is absolutely no evidence at all to suggest Barbara's maiden name was Mullins, as is sometimes claimed, nor that either Rose or Barbara were his cousins as occasionally claimed.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

===Biographical Summary===

Myles Standish started his military career as a drummer, and eventually worked his way up and into the Low Countries (Holland), where English troops under Heratio Vere had been stationed to help the Dutch in their war with Spain. It was certainly here that he made acquaintance with the Pilgrims at Leyden, and came into good standing with the Pilgrims pastor John Robinson.  Standish was eventually hired by them to be their military captain.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

Captain Standish lead most of the first exploring missions into the wintery surroundings at Cape Cod looking for a place to settle. He was elected military captain, and organized the Pilgrims defenses against the Indians, as well as protect the Colony from the French, Spanish, and Dutch.  In 1622 he led an expedition to save the remaining members of the Wessagusett Colony and killed several Indians who had led the plot to kill all the Englishmen at that Colony. He also led the Pilgrims to victory in the battle of Nowandacares and subsequently permitted peace between the Indians and the Pirgrims.{{cnFact|date=June 2009}}

Standish befriended an Indian named Hobomok, just as Bradford befriended Squanto, and the two lived out their lives very close to one another.  Hobomok was a warrior for Massasoit, and the two "military men" probably understood one another better than most.{{cn}}{{orFact|date=June 2009}}{{Or|date=June 2009}}

==Citations and Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* Sumner, William Hyslop, ''An Inquiry Into the Importance of the Militia to a Free Commonwealth: In a Letter from William H. Sumner ... to John Adams, Late President of the United States; with His Answer'', Cummings and Hilliard, Boston, 1823

==External links==
*http://www.mylesstandish.org/
*[http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/MylesStandish.php Myles Standish] from MayflowerHistory.com
*[http://www.duxbury.plus.com/standish/Mylespt1.htm Myles Standish article] by Helen Moorwood
*http://www.standish-history.org.uk/history.php?year=1620
*http://www.standish.org.uk/history.php?org=st_family
*[http://www.sail1620.org/discover_biography_myles_standish_born_where_the_state_of_the_question_part_1.shtml ''Myles Standish''] by Dr Jeremy Bangs, PhD.
*[http://historyofstandish.org.uk History of Standish] - A collection of interactive videos documenting the history of Standish, UK.

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{{succession box | before = None | title = [[Military Commander/Plymouth Colony]] | years=1620-1653 | after = Captain [[Thomas Willett]]}}
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[[Category:1580s births]]
[[Category:1656 deaths]]
[[Category:Mayflower passengers]]
[[Category:People from Chorley]]
[[Category:Plymouth, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American folklore]]

[[fr:Myles Standish]]